Cowboy Festival

We had a great time at the Cowboy Festival on Saturday afternoon, after a full morning of softball and birthday partying.

For the second year in a row, the festival was held at Hart Park, because Melody Ranch again was in the middle of filming. We didn't go last year, but with a super cheap Groupon deal this time, we were excited to check out the new location.

Many of our favorite characters were still there, including the trick roper who tied up Cora.

Many vendors were set up along the edge, but without the cover of Melody Ranch's Western facade, that part felt more like any craft fair or swap meet.
Still, the park's expansive grassy areas and huge shade trees were welcome in the afternoon heat.

We checked out the various re-enactors, with the Civil War camps, wigwams, and blacksmith's setup. 

The girls were excited to see the children's activities, complete with archery, a quick-draw gun fight, gold-panning and ax-throwing.

Yes, I said "ax throwing."
It was harder than it looked, but Stace got the hang of it, as you can see in this photo and video clip.

Oh, and there was music! While the girls panned for gold just behind the seating area here, Stace and I enjoyed this string trio.

We were steps away from Heritage Junction, and the historic homes were open for touring. The girls enjoyed playing with old wooden toys on display inside the Edison House.

Here, the girls are inside a tiny schoolhouse.

We then went to the food court, where we met up with my parents and had a late lunch.

As always, we loved the peach cobbler, which we ate while listening to an outstanding band.

The girls weren't interested in listening to an hours' worth of music, so they went just outside the seating area to play in the grass.

Soon, we saw they'd made up their own baseball game. They broke up small sticks to use as balls, found a bigger stick for a bat, and took turns pitching and hitting.

It was absolutely adorable, just like those sepia photos I've seen of the boys playing makeshift stickball in the big city alley. I was so proud of them, finding such a great way to play together (with no fighting!).